


On The Sidelines

by Elayna



Series: The Risks series [3]
Category: White House Down (2013)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Multi, POV Outsider, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 03:24:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17859338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elayna/pseuds/Elayna
Summary: Carol learns more about her boss' relationships than she really wanted to know, and steps up to protect him.





	On The Sidelines

Security briefings between only the two of them, the president and the head of his Secret Service, were standard procedure, but a little niggle had remained at the back of Carol's head ever since President Sawyer had told the agent standing watch against the back wall that he could go. Sawyer usually let Carol determine whether one of her staff would be listening. 

"There's one last thing I wanted to talk about." 

There it was. "Yes, Mr. President?" Carol remained professional, courteous. 

"Alison and I wanted to take a vacation to Camp David. We were thinking a long weekend at the start of next month. Amber will go too." 

"Of course, Mr. President. You know it's always kept ready for you, but I'll alert the caretaker." 

"We'd like to invite John Cale as a guest, and Melanie, Donnie, and Emily." 

Ah, that would be awkward. Of course, everyone knew that Sawyer regarded John as a friend, but mostly they downplayed the relationship in deference to John's status as a Secret Service agent. "I understand that Amber and Emily are becoming good friends. Will you want staff? A cook?" 

"No, Alison wants to cook. She's good at assigning tasks. She'll prepare a grocery list, if you can send it to the caretaker? We don't want any staff within the house."

"Of course. Anything else?"

"We were hoping that everyone could go up Friday afternoon. The others will come back Sunday afternoon. The girls have school on Monday morning."

"Amber's agents can escort them all. Amber will stay at the White House Monday night by herself?"

"Probably. She's old enough. Or she might stay with a school friend. We'll work that out and let you know."

"Of course, Mr. President." Carol was still waiting for that shoe. Amber was certainly old enough to come back and stay by herself. Carol had been by her age, even occasionally looking after her younger brother. 

"John will stay with us when the others leave. We'll remain overnight and come back Monday, probably not until the afternoon. Maybe even Tuesday. We're still discussing. We won't need any agents to check on us, since John will be with us." 

"You, and Alison, and John. In the house at Camp David. With no interference," Carol said slowly, cautiously. 

"Yes." His tone was level, but Sawyer's eyes were watchful. 

"But John will be your guest. He'll be using vacation time." 

"Yes. Don't expect him to check in. Or he can if needed, but not on a set schedule. No one should check in with him." 

"Mr. President--" 

They looked at each other. Carol could feel the tiny start of a headache. "You realize that other agents might have problems with John's status. When Emily and Amber are there, then it's more likely to be seen as a favor to your daughter, to give her a friend close to her own age. But just the three of you, that's more likely to be resented. And discussed." 

"I'm not concerned about the petty jealousy of John's co-workers." He sighed. "No, I am concerned for John's sake. I need you to sell this." 

"I'm not sure what this is, Mr. President." 

"It's what you don't want to believe it is, Carol." 

Oh, sometimes that man was the master of dryness. "You once admitted to me that you and John had had an inappropriate relationship. This frankly sounds like you plan to continue it." 

"I'm not going to argue you out of whatever assumption you're making." 

Because she was making the correct assumption. He was the master of dryness and understatement. "With Mrs. Sawyer?" 

"Yes." 

Well. That was…

"Are we good? I'll have Alison talk to Melanie and get that shopping list to you." 

"Yes, Mr. President. I'll talk to the caretaker." 

And that was that. Carol smiled, gave a nod, and left for her office, wondering how she was going to plan for this trip. Before the tumor had wrecked his brain, Walker had been a good teacher, but he'd never prepared her for the president and his wife having a ménage a trois at Camp David with one of her junior agents. This was a procedure manual she had to write herself. 

~~~

It was perhaps fortunate that she ran into John as she reached her office, because she wasn't prepared, and ended up giving him a look that must have revealed her unhappiness. He stopped abruptly. "Director?"

"Cale," she snapped, continuing into her office. 

"Director?" He stood in the doorway, with a respectful hesitancy, but not retreating. 

"Do you need something?"

"I feel like I need to apologize for whatever I've done. Which I would, if I knew what it was." 

"The president has talked to me about Camp David."

"O-kay?" 

"Okay? Is that all you have to say?" 

John's shoulders twitched and he glanced out into the hallway, as if searching for someone who might explain the problem to him. "It's a vacation place? I assume it's a pretty nice place, but I think it's a little rustic, right? Carter had some sort of peace accords there, but I think that was before I was born." 

"Oh god, you don't know."

"Know what? What is there to be known?" 

"Come in, John. Shut the door and sit down." Sawyer and his wife had gotten pretty far in their planning, considering that they hadn't even talked to John and made sure he was willing. So either they were arrogant or thoughtless, or they were confident that John would be receptive. Since the Sawyers were neither arrogant nor thoughtless, that meant… probably that the three already had been involved. When? Where? "The president and his wife would like to take a long weekend at the start of next month at Camp David. They're planning on inviting you and Emily, and Melanie and Donnie." 

"Wow, that's--that's really sweet. Emily will be thrilled." John looked touched, but as if he was still waiting for the reason for her anger. "I don't expect the other agents to like it, but I wouldn't have thought you'd be that mad about it." 

"It's not that part so much. It's the part where the rest of the guests and Amber go home, and the three of you stay another day. Perhaps two. Without any of the other agents checking in."

"Oh." 

"Yes. Oh." 

John could do impassive, but he wasn't right now. He was letting his emotions show, in his eyes, in his body as he hunched forward, elbows on his knees. 

"When did it happen with Mrs. Sawyer?" 

John rubbed the back of his neck. "Snow day. That day you didn't make it in."

One of these days, she'd have to teach John how to avoid confirming suspicions, but today was not that day. Maybe she'd bring it up the last month of Sawyer's second term, she had a feeling she'd need John's full honesty. "They hadn't discussed Camp David with you." 

He shook his head. "No." 

"Then just say no. Say it's a bad plan, that you want to return with Melanie and Emily." 

John was already shaking his head again. "No." 

"John, you know this is risky. You may have gotten away with it before, but every time increases the possibility of exposure." 

"I know that." His voice was low, intense. "And believe me, I would never want to risk James' presidency or do something that would let people look down on him. But I've already told him--" 

"Told him what?"

"Anything. I've told James anything he wants, anything he's willing to risk. Anything at all. And I'm not going back on that." 

 

Well, that would explain Sawyer's confidence. John had matured as a person, he wasn't the thoughtless goofball Carol had known in college. Three tours in Afghanistan had given him an inner steel. He wasn't a man who would renege on promises and he would stay at James' side to face any consequences.

"You don't normally call him James." 

"I'm not normally talking about events that involved sucking his cock," John snapped, a bluntness that made Carol blink. "God." He made a sound that might have been a giggle, his head dropping almost to his knees before he pushed back, slouching in the chair, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm Marilyn. That's something I never pictured, you know?" 

"I never pictured being one of the agents escorting her through the tunnels. You know that if this came out, it would be far worse than it would have been for JFK and Marilyn?"

"Yeah. They were gorgeous white people. No one's going to understand me and the Sawyers, even after all James and I went through."

"No," Carol said softly. She wasn't sure she even understood. Maybe only those two men could appreciate the bond between them.

"I'm sorry. I am really, really, very sorry. If there was some way to not involve you--you stay here, you've got deniability at least, if it comes out. You weren't at the White House on snow day; you weren't in Philadelphia." 

So it had started in Philadelphia, just James and John. He really needed to learn to not provide details. "No, I need to be there. I'll provide cover." 

"You would do that?" 

"My duty is to the president, to make sure that he is safe and that nothing interferes with him fulfilling his duties." 

"This isn't about his duties. It's about as far away from duty as you can get."

"But if it came out, it would ruin his effectiveness. I know I insist on the Secret Service being apolitical, but I do believe in Sawyer and what he's doing. I believe in peace." 

"Yeah." John stood, rubbing his hands on his thighs. "Thank you. And if there's anything I can do--Or maybe just anything I can do to make it not worse--I mean, let me know, okay?"

"Yes, John. We should talk more before the trip, make sure we're coordinated on the details." 

"Okay. See you tomorrow, boss."

"See you tomorrow, John." 

John left, closing the door behind him, leaving Carol alone with her thoughts. 

~~~

The weekend had gone well, laughter and togetherness, eight people enjoying themselves, hanging around, taking walks in the forest, playing card games, working in harmony under Alison's direction to create meals. Carol had tried to remain aloof, outside or in the bunkhouse with the rest of the agents, but James and Alison wouldn't let her, insisting on treating her like part of the family too.

John knew how to carve radishes into roses, seriously, who knew? 

Then it was over, John giving Emily fierce hugs before bundling her in the back seat of Melanie's car next to Amber. He gave Donnie a quiet, "Take care of them," ignoring Melanie's little eye roll at his chauvinism, before all of them were waving goodbye. Agents escorted them in cars in front and back. 

They wandered back into the main house, Carol sitting down with her book as James idly straightened the collection of board games. 

"This is stupid," John announced, before marching over to the president, wasting no time in taking him into his arms and kissing him, the kind of kiss that might end a romantic Hollywood movie. Carol couldn't help but watch. John and James looked good together, similar heights and builds, their bodies pressed close. Light and dark but physically matched. 

James glanced over at Carol as soon as John's lips released his. John looked too, then immediately back to James. "She knows. That's why she's here."

"Knowing is different than seeing."

John tilted James' head, kissed him again, as if a kiss could erase all James' doubts. Alison was watching too, sitting on the couch like she was content to let the men figure it out. Somehow it didn't surprise Carol that even though the Sawyers had been the ones to initiate, John would push to move things along. He'd always been an 'all-in' kinda guy, even when he should have thought for a second or even third time. "This took too much to arrange. It's stupid to waste the time," John insisted. 

"It's still the middle of the afternoon."

"Now you're just being deliberately stupid. Alison, you never told me you married a stupid man."

"Maybe you've made him stupid, John. All his blood went south when you kissed him."

"Yeah, it's my fault? I bet I can do something about that." John was a good-looking man, Carol had never been oblivious to that fact, but there was something else about him at this moment, an unnerving intensity focused on James and the clear desire to have sex.

Carol was contemplating whether she should make a less than graceful exit, because there was a difference between knowing and way too much watching, when John started pushing James down the hallway, toward the master bedroom. "Alison? You going to help me get his brain working again?" John and James disappeared through the bedroom doorway. 

"Carol."

Carol tore her eyes away from the bedroom door and looked at Alison. "Yes?" She hoped she didn't appear too distracted. 

"We do thank you and appreciate what you're doing."

"It's not something I would have thought of doing, but I'm glad I can help."

"You do. It's--good for James. John is good for him."

Discussing this had been weird enough with John, and at least they were more on the same side, staffers trying to protect their bosses. Not a boss thanking her for hiding a polyamorous affair. "Like John said, this took a lot to arrange. You shouldn't waste it."

Alison looked like she wanted to talk more, than gave it up. "Thank you, Carol."

Carol looked down at her book, listening to the door open, Alison's soft giggle and a man's moan, the door shut. She closed the book again. Maybe she'd check on the outside agents first. 

She hated Monopoly. Gin rummy could be played a long time too. FLOTUS was still the most ferocious player of them all. 

~ the end ~

**Author's Note:**

> My thanks to Seaward for the betaing!


End file.
